Monday, December 12, 2005

What helps..

Now let me start by saying that I am not an expert, there is reams of material about training written - this is just the somewhat obvious things that I have found helpful..

Find a good training partner - this I think is critical, for me anyway, try and look for someone that shares the same ambitions and is COMMITTED, an added bonus is that they will want to complete the same events as you. It is not necessary for you both to be the same standard. For me just knowing there is someone waiting at the pool is enough to get me out of bed some mornings. If you have some one who is not reliable and cannot keep to the agreed schedule you will find that their actions start to give you excuses for missing sessions.

Set a schedule that is easily repeatable - consistency is what I have learnt as one of the golden rules, there is loads written out there about this by people that are much more credible than me. However from my brief experience this is true. No point making a schedule that you cannot keep to. For me getting fit is similar to building a house of of bricks, just slowly building the layers up until the house is complete. Consistency is the key - no point doing 5 hard days and then having 5 days off..

Set some goals - Very important, set goals on every level, for me my goal started as trying to reduce my weight as I had parked up during my office years and I had previous experience is keeping a reasonable level of fitness. This goal was quickly surpassed by virtue of just tackling training and now my goals are event based, the main one for 2006 is to complete an Ironman triathlon and 2007 to qualify for the Ironman championships in Hawaii. Anything else I can do along the way is a bonus.. I try and enter at least one competitive event a month, not only does this break up the repetitive nature of training but it gives you a good gauge of how you are improving - very helpful in Bangkok when the same people do all the events..

Have confidence in yourself - first place or last place, at least you are giving it a go, nothing better than looking around the office and knowing that you attempted events that others could not dream of. Its too easy these days not to be bothered to give anything a go. Anyone that tries something is going in the right direction in my book.

and finally go to bed early and grant yourself some off days..

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